Anxiety can manifest through both physical and emotional symptoms including rapid heartbeat, sweating, nervousness, and feeling like something bad is going to happen. Anxiety disorders include Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), and Panic Disorder among others. Treating anxiety disorders typically involves a combination of therapy, medication, lifestyle changes, and support systems. Using a combination of the following therapeutic approaches, I will help you learn how to better manage your anxiety:

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): The most effective form of therapy for anxiety, I will utilize CBT techniques to help you identify and challenge negative thought patterns and unhelpful behaviors that reinforce the symptoms of anxiety.

• Exposure Therapy: Another form of CBT, exposure therapy is also an extremely effective therapy for treating anxiety disorders. Exposure therapy works by gradually exposing you to fears and other sources of anxiety so you become desensitized to them over time. Since exposure therapy can provoke fear and discomfort, I will offer encouragement and support throughout the therapeutic process.

• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): ACT focuses on accepting anxious thoughts and feelings rather than fighting them, suppressing them, or avoiding them altogether. I will help you learn how to validate your anxious thoughts and feelings without letting them control you.

• Mindfulness-Based Therapy: Mindfulness emphasizes staying in the present to avoid ruminating and worrying about things out of your control. Anxious thoughts are often focused on "what-ifs" about the future. By teaching you mindfulness techniques such as grounding, calming your body through deep breathing techniques, and becoming more aware of your thoughts, you can learn how to bring yourself back to the here-and-now.

OCD is characterized by intrusive, unwanted, and distressing thoughts, images, or urges that repeatedly enter a person's mind. These thoughts often cause significant anxiety or discomfort. I treat OCD through a combination of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP).

With ERP, which is considered the gold standard in OCD treatment, we will target distressing obsessions and compulsions by collaborating and creating an exposure hierarchy together. I will work with you to gradually expose you to the source of your obsession in a controlled, step-by-step manner.

In addition, I will also help you learn how to resist the urges to engage in compulsive behaviors, which reduce anxiety and discomfort in the short-term but increase them in the long-term. By resisting the urges to engage in compulsive behaviors you have been using to experience short-term relief of your anxiety, you will learn that the distress will eventually decrease on its own without the need for compulsive behaviors.

A common CBT intervention called cognitive restructuring is also used to address distorted thinking patterns. I will help you identify and challenge irrational or exaggerated beliefs linked to your obsessions so they become less powerful over time.

Couples seek therapy for a wide range of relationship issues that can affect emotional and physical intimacy, communication, and overall happiness. Oftentimes, couples are unconsciously re-enacting relationship dynamics and patterns they learned from their families of origin. Couples may also be experiencing difficulties staying connected and prioritizing their relationship while managing the demands of careers, parenting, and family obligations. I utilize a combination of Gottman Method and Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) approaches to help couples learn how to better communicate their needs and strengthen their relationships.

• The Gottman Method focuses on building and strengthening the emotional connection between partners while providing practical tools to manage conflict and improve communication. Through the use of the Gottman Method, I am able to help couples learn how to strengthen communication, deepen intimacy, and address conflict. The approach also involves a lot of education, where couples learn about healthy relationship dynamics, the importance of emotional bids, and how to repair emotional damage.

• Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) is based on attachment theory and focuses on the emotional bonds between partners. EFT focuses on identifying negative interaction patterns or cycles that create emotional distance or conflict. These patterns often involve partners reacting to each other’s emotions in ways that perpetuate conflict or isolation. Through the use of EFT, I help couples understand their individual attachment styles and underlying unmet emotional needs. I then help couples learn how to better identify and communicate their needs to one another in healthier and more productive ways.